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Diplomatic tensions
NB I tried to format the spaces in between paragraphs correctly, but they refused so that's that then. The great Vertargo was emptying. It had been emptying since the day Halleck was born on it but now it felt like a shell of itself. His footsteps echoed loudly off the marble floor, the echoes continued further down the corridor. He passed a Badger, a deck hand by the look of him. The badger gave a salute as he walked by. As a member of the Badgerian Inquisition Halleck was given a great deal of respect (and fear) by the populace. His shoulder itched from where that lowlife had stuck a dagger in it two weeks past. The Medicus adepts said that it would heal in time but until then he was stuck with it. 'That bloody lowlife's annoying me from beyond the grave' he thought as he turned a entered a new passage. This passage was different. It was one of the main arterial routes through the Vertargo and as such was a great deal larger than the one he had emerged from. Here and there the crew and passengers were going about their business but there could have been no more than 5 in the hallway. 'So many of us have left' he thought again. Crew offered salutes whenever he passed them while civilians gave a reverent bow. They slid beneath his attention, his thoughts wandering to those onshore. News had filtered back to the fleet that Newhearth would soon be granted Sett status, a high honour. It would be the first badger Sett to exist in over 150years. It struck him as sobering that none of the populace (save for the Lord Badger, Lord Draven and a few others) had actually laid eyes upon a true badger Sett. The rest of the populace being born either on the Vertargo on its long voyage or onshore on Ebisius. He started up a flight of stairs, they were flanked with statues depicting those that had sacrificed themselves to ensure the Vertargo could escape its dock. He muttered a prayer to Primus to watch over those heroic souls, without whom, no Badger would have lived through the Reckoning. He reached the top of the stairs and made for a door to his far right. The plaque beside it read 'Inquisitor Velann.' He entered, Inquisitors do not knock, they prefer to arrive unexpected. (xD sorry, couldn't resist) Inquisitor Velann was at his desk, an antique from the old world. It was of a wood you couldn't grow in these new climates, dark and rich. The Inquisitor himself was ancient, he had been born just after the Vertargo arrived at the new continent a century ago. Slowly he raised his head. he dismissed the papers he had been reading. 'Halleck, sit down.' he said. 'It is strange times we live in isn't it?' Halleck did as the old badger commanded. 'I don't follow you,' Halleck replied, politely declining the offered drink placed before him. Velann shrugged and poured what would have been Halleck's share into his own glass instead. 'Have a look at this would you?' He passed a piece of paper to Halleck, it looked like an intelligence report, a very recent one by the date. Halleck read it, then he read it again. The meaning escaped him utterly. 'The beavers . . .are hibernating?' Velann took a swig of drink. 'Apparently so, we've been told from their ambassador that it's a form of tradition, a remnant from their tribal origins whenever this place was in the grip of an ice age. He says. . . 'they emerge purified and restored as a society' such nonsense!' Such nonsense indeed. An entire nation sleeping? 'It says here for 3 years?' 'Again, apparently so.' 'But this makes no sense! Why would they do it now even if it's tradition. Tensions between us have never been higher than what they are now. We're a hair's breadth away from all out war!' Velann finished his drink, an impressive feat for one as old as he. He often claimed that alcohol was one of the few things keeping him alive at this point. 'That was one of the arguments their ambassador made for the hibernation. Three years should be long enough for the tensions to wear down he says.' 'What of their military? What do they do during this hibernation?' 'Half of them sleep for 6 months before switching to the other half. Even the ones not sleeping will be in no state to fight a war, what with their civilian production base inoperable.' Halleck was perplexed. 'Forgive me asking but, how can they not expect an attack from us? Now would be the perfect time to strike!' 'Which is exactly why we're going to do nothing of the sort.' Velann refilled his glass. 'But this is perfect! These Beavers might as well hand us their nation on a plate.' Velann opened a drawer of his monolithic desk and produced a map. He roughly laid it over the desk's clutter. 'It is not the Beavers that should concern you. Like you said, now would be the perfect time to strike them but in doing so would expend a great amount of our military seizing an area as vast as the Tsardom. And in the process earn the animosity of the entire bloody continent!' 'We have bigger threats than the Tsardom at this point.' He gestured to the southeast of Badgerian territory. 'The goblins are expanding their hearts out and encroaching on the far side of the canal but the bears. . .' he tapped his finger over Beardonian lands. 'The bears are the threat at this point. We've received intelligence that the bears have gone nuclear.' That surprised Halleck. Most of the natives did not care much for technology, instead content with their heretical witchcraft. The Bears were, granted one of the more technologically minded barbarians but even they should be decades away at least from any sort of nuclear physics development. 'Do they have the knowledge to make a tactical warhead?' Velanns brow furrowed. 'Yes we believe so, fortunately they seem to be scouring the land for more uranium but can't yet find any. Let us hope their luck continues to be poor. We ourselves have sent in covert geological teams with orders to nullify any uranium deposits they encounter.' 'Indeed' Halleck agreed, this was a dire event. Nuclear knowledge had been thought be solely in the hands of the Badgers but this new development threatened a primary trump card for the Badgerian Empire. 'But surely they could not match our current arsenal.' he protested, 'Our remaining warheads from the Reckoning number over a hundred, if it came to nuclear war, we'd win.' 'Except for the fact that we've taken great pains to ensure that they don't know we possess nuclear weapons, we would have to reveal one of our most closely guarded secrets. Yes I agree with you, we would win that war but I ask you why are we here?' 'To return.' The response was so ingrained within Halleck that he had answered automatically. 'Exactly! Verstanum. Pretty hard to take a continent back with 90% of the populace blown to pieces. Our purpose here is to grow strong again, not to expend our energies in petty disputes with half feral savages.' Halleck conceded, 'I understand. The beavers though. . .will they trust us not to attack? We do not have shining precedents on matters of goodwill.' 'We've already withdrew 500 men from Hass West as a show of good faith and lightened patrols in the Seranti lake. Truth be told I say let the bloody beavers sleep. We do not need this excessive military build up in Seranti with no useful outcome.' 'Then what is our course of action on the matter. To do nothing?' 'Not exactly.' Velann began to grin, 'We have no intention of attacking anyone, but we cannot let this opportune security lax go to waste either.' he pointed back to the map, his finger resting squarely on Embassy Mount. 'Halleck my friend, we're going to take the neutral zone. . .'